VICTORY: Pensacola State College backtracks, prints student-created magazine

Student journalists at Pensacola State College will once again be able to read their work in print. After weeks of insisting that Florida’s unconstitutional Stop WOKE Act prohibited the college from printing the student-run magazine Just Opposed, PSC President Ed Meadows confirmed that the college has begun printing the magazine for students. This is a huge win, not just for the students but for free speech on all Florida college campuses.

On April 29, associate vice president of academic affairs Brenda Kelly met with literature professor Marisa Mills, whose journalism and graphic design classes had collaborated to create Just Opposed. Kelly told Mills that the Stop WOKE Act barred the college from printing students’ work that included LGBT content. When the students refused to alter their work, officials blocked funding for the print run.

FIRE wrote to the college on May 1, explaining that the Stop WOKE Act cannot prohibit the magazine’s printing. The Act itself is unconstitutional — FIRE pointed to a district court judge’s opinion which calls the law “dystopian” and prevents Florida universities from enforcing it.

At first, the college pushed back, claiming it never violated Mills’s academic freedom and had to stop the printing because of state law. That response did not refute FIRE’s argument that the college denied funding for the publication because of its viewpoint. 

On May 12, FIRE replied to the college, explaining that state law can’t trump the Constitution. The letter argued that viewpoint discrimination is unacceptable, and the college cannot hide behind an unconstitutional state law to suppress viewpoints that a college administrator — or the governor — wants to quash.

The college replied on May 18, saying it had agreed to print copies of the magazine, including the LGBT stories it had initially asked students to stifle. After talking with counsel, the college realized FIRE was right: the Stop WOKE Act cannot suppress student viewpoints, in the classroom or otherwise. 

PSC said it takes exception to FIRE’s allegation that its administrators violated their students’ First Amendment rights. But administrators across Florida and around the country should take a lesson from PSC’s backtracking: the First Amendment is the law of the land. No legislature, no governor, and no administrator can change that. PSC backed down because its lawyers know that fundamental truth. And students at the college, across Florida, and beyond are better for it.